


A Haven For This Heart

by Elleth



Category: A Redtail's Dream (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Canon, Trick or Treat: Chocolate Box, Trick or Treat: Treat, Year 0 (Stand Still Stay Silent)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 07:57:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12476928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elleth/pseuds/Elleth
Summary: Hannu holds out in Hokanniemi, alone with Ville - until he doesn't.





	A Haven For This Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yuuago](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuuago/gifts).



> Some shmoopy goodness just for Yuu. <3

In another universe, Hannu is pulling a tray of buns from Mr. Kuikka's oven. In that universe Hannu still has his job, his store, his… Joona. 

* * *

The Kuikka family ran. They packed up everything, including Oona (Hannu might have left her behind at the dock, by mistake of course) and invited him and Ville along, but he's couldn't make himself leave Hokanniemi and the safety of his house, a spot that is all his and Ville's, and the early beginnings of his island refuge - and the plausible deniability of not knowing who made it and who didn't. 

Doesn't mean that he doesn't regret not going, now that the stakes turned out much more serious than he thought. He wants to bite his own ass for staying, now that he can't leave. 

Doesn't mean he doesn't miss all the boring normalcy. Power most of all, a time when he didn't have to chop wood like some savage and rely on candles dipping the room in flickering light after sunset. Hannu glances out the window, where Ville is on his knees in the snow, digging around the lawn, and makes sure his crossbow isn't pointing directly at him.

But his mind wanders. He can't help wishing that Joona would get in touch, let him know he's okay. The boat they're on has a radio, and Hannu found a handheld one scavenging around the Kuitunens' abandoned farm that they can't strictly object to him using any longer. He prefers not to think of what he found in their stable. But he also found the radio, and the Kuikkas' boat used to be in range when he tried to reach them - but he needs to preserve batteries and only turns it on for a short while the same time every night. Since then - radio silence. He knows what that probably means - oh, he knows - but maybe it just means they drifted out of range, just that and nothing more. 

The front door slams and shuts Hannu out of his gloomy thoughts. 

He hears Ville shake himself to get the snow off. There's no stopping some of his more canine behaviours, even if that means living with water stains on the boards in the hallway. In the center of the living room floor, the turtle raises her head and stretches her wrinkly neck so far it's almost smooth - she knows Ville coming back means food. The turtle isn't going hungry, while they're rationing the cans they still have. The frozen stuff, which they looted from the houses nearby and kept buried in a pile of snow after the power went out, got eaten by something - Ville, sniffing at the snow, insists it was a fox. Hannu can believe it, whether or not Ville can actually still smell it. Foxes are assholes.

Instead, Hannu's had dreams of making soup of the turtle, and he would if it wouldn't break Ville's heart. It's like some dark comedy, like someone has been having fun plunging him from one stupid situation into the other, getting steadily worse. A little like the dream quests, come to think of it.

"You smell like wet dog," he says when Ville comes in and piles two handfuls of snowy grass before the turtle, who starts snapping it up eagerly. 

"And you're being mean for no reason," Ville snaps in return, but he takes only a moment to go for the attack in the form of sad puppy-dog eyes. Hannu tosses the crossbow onto the sofa, the safety releases and the bolt sticks quivering and fletching-deep in a sofa pillow. Snarling wordlessly, Hannu stalks off into the kitchen. 

Something starts yelling in his head. It sounds sluggish from the cold, and quiet - far enough away to not be a danger; he can tell by now - but it doesn't help his mood. To distract himself, and maybe mollify Ville, Hannu opens a can of sausages and drops them - Ville gets an extra one - onto two plates. One he plonks down in front of Ville on the floor, then Hannu switches the radio on, curls himself onto the sofa, and makes himself eat. He's not all that hungry, mostly he's tired and his muscles ache from cutting down the trees on his island, a few every day, to pile them into a makeshift fence before he can build a proper palisade when the ground thawed enough in spring. 

At least the sicko stopped yelling into his head; it probably means he's gone away. Hannu tries not to figure out whether or not he knows the voice, as he chews a cold sausage into mush that he rolls around in his mouth without swallowing. 

*

The crackle of the radio is what wakes Hannu. 

He's been dreaming - again - of the Kuikka store, though this time he was all alone there, and it's been one of those dreams where there's not actually anything outside its windows other than endless water, mist, and stars. It feels like home, but he doesn't like the feeling, and it's no good when there's no one else there - not Ville, not Joona, not even Jonna, Paju, Anssi or Riikka. 

Not that they didn't also leave in the real world. There's gotta be a whole fleet of boats from Hokanniemi on the lakes somewhere. 

But - the radio. It's ice cold in the room, and the blanket that someone - Ville, so he's forgiven their spat - spread over him didn't help. Hannu's legs are stiff - he stumbles over his own feet as he lunges for the shelf where he put the radio, and swears that if it's another confused rando, or a malfunction, or more of the infected voices, he'll toss the thing out the window without opening it first. 

But when the crackle resolves itself into a voice, relief makes Hannu's legs weak, and he chokes on a breath like an idiot, sits on the floor and balances the radio on his knee like it's the most precious thing in the world. 

"-nnu! Don't make me come back there and lock you up in the shed again! Answer the radio, jerk!" 

Joona's voice washes through Hannu like hot coffee. 

"Or don't - doesn't matter - I'm coming back for you anyway."

" _We_ are!" a voice cuts in from the back, loud and weirdly cheerful. More so, maybe, since Hannu hasn't heard a lot of human voices recently. "We kind of… stole dad's boat. He's not happy with us, so we'll have to make it worth it by dragging your stubborn ass all the way to Joutenvesi. But Joona here, he was walking around like some drooping lovesick daisy, I couldn't stand it after three days. We just didn't get a chance before this. Ville, if you're there - club Hannu over the head so he can't run off; we should be there in the morning." 

Sounds of a scuffle scratch along the frequency. Hannu leans his head into his hand and can't help laughing as he presses the button to reply - but it doesn't stay at that. It turns into a laughing fit and Hannu laughs until he's wheezing, until tears run down his face and Ville pokes his head into the room, and he hears Jonna say " - gone off the deep end, this apocalypse fucked your guy right in the head, brother dear." 

Hannu doesn't care. What matters is that they're coming for him. 

* * * 

In another universe - it might as well be that - Hannu, Ville and Riikka are up on ladders, holding the newly-painted Kuikka store sign over the door of a repurposed summer cottage in Joutenvesi, while Jonna hammers nails into the wood to hold it in place. The smell of fresh buns drifts from the open door into the crisp winter air, and Joona walks around with a tray of them. 

It's not Hokanniemi, and things won't ever go back to what they were. He can hear a confused voice from the direction of the lake somewhere, all the usual questions, _where am I?_ and _what happened?_ and _I want to go home_. All questions he's asked himself at some point, and he doesn't like what that says about him. 

But there are people there, all coming for the store's reopening - familiar faces, and survivors from other places around Saimaa, even a couple with a baby girl who is drooling over her fresh bun, and who Hannu is pretty sure is one of _them_ , maybe the very first poor sod actually born with power. 

It probably means that it's not supposed to be game over, and when he slips down the ladder to steal one of Joona's buns, he finds all the crisp ones squirreled away into the pockets of Joona's apron. 

And that's almost enough to carry on.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to K and M for their help!


End file.
